The letter was entirely written, signed and stamped by Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein, rosh yeshivah of Knesset Yisrael in Slabodka, Hebron and Jerusalem.
The letter was sent to the gaon Rabbi Yechiel Michel Tukachinsky on 7 Shevat 1933. It contains a request to enter his in-law, the gaon Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein, into a lottery for an apartment in Batei Broide, next to Rechaviah. Given that he is a poor Talmudic scholar, “Perhaps Hashem will give him an apartment.”
Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein [1866-1934] studied at the yeshivah in Volozhin, where he was considered a prodigy. He was asked by the “Alter” of Slobodka to serve as rosh yeshivah of Knesset Yisrael. Alongside this, he was also the Av Beit Din of Slobodka and active in the Council of Torah Sages. Following the pogroms of 1929, in which many of the students at his yeshivah were killed and the Jewish settlement there was destroyed, the yeshivah was moved to Jerusalem. The rabbi was so heartbroken, he passed away. He authored the series of books Levush Mordechai .
[1] leaf paper, 27 cm. Official lined stationery, entirely handwritten, signed and stamped by Rabbi Epstein.
Very fine condition, fold marks, aging stains.